Oscars Nominations Thoughts

First off, let’s begin by saying that the nominations haven’t veered too much out of line, but there were some big surprises. I was super excited for the nominations and I’m quite eager to share my thoughts with your guys as well. Feel free to discuss 🙂

Idris Elba was snubbed. BIG TIME. Just like Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler last year. And David Oyelowo. And Ava DuVernay. Need I say more?

Seriously??! This snub is so baffling but once you actually let it sink in, it’s pure discrimination. And that’s toxic. It’s no surprise that the academy is mainly made up of old and white men. But you can’t just disregard Idris Elba. WTF! His performance in Beasts Of No Nation was an absolute bomb. No one else nominated in the supporting actor category tonight could even come close. Pfft come on, if this isn’t racist I don’t know what is.

Lenny Abrahamson!!!!! YES! Todd Haynes out.

I raved about Lenny Abrahamson’s directing in Room because I felt that he was extremely versatile and ingenious. Within the claustrophobic confines of Room, he captured some great angles which made the story very personal and emotional. He was able to vary his style in the second half of the film as well. But perhaps my favourite sequence was the escape one, where all the blurry wonder and dramatic tension was encapsulated in one throbbing perspective. And the Oscars have recognized this 🙂 I’m just extremely happy that he’s being recognized for directing one of the most difficult and emotional films. It’s quite a surprise for most people, but yeah I’m stoked!

Todd Haynes, director of Carol, was conversely left out of the race. I hate to agree with the Oscars sometimes, but I have no doubts about this. I just really honestly don’t get the hype with Haynes. I see reviews about how he’s ‘remarkable’ or ‘subtle’, just don’t get what’s so great about his directing. Nothing personal, it’s just not my taste.

Ex Machina and Sicario didn’t leave with nothing. But I’m not impressed.

Ok so I was hoping that they’ll get Best Picture nominations. They’ve been nominated for the PGA awards but the Oscars probably deemed it as too radical. But its ok Academy, we know you don’t like films that make you think, are violent, or challenge your morality. Boring bunch really. However, these two highly underrated films got something, which isn’t too bad right? Ex Machina got Original Screenplay and Visual Effects. Sicario got Sound Editing and Cinematography. But clearly, Benicio Del Toro’s face here speaks for some of us. We’re not impressed. Had they been snubbed entirely, I can’t guarantee what La Muerte (personification of death) above would have done to the voters.

Peanuts Movie and The Good Dinosaur left for the dead.

The academy chose lesser known films Boy and the World and When Marnie was there. Hmm, I haven’t watched them so I can’t judge. But what I do know is that Leonardo DiCaprio has seen better. Hey, at least he came back from the dead ;0

Chivo Lubezki and Roger Deakins are the film industry’s Mozart and Salieri.

For those of you who don’t know these two legends, they’re extremely talented cinematographers. The shoot with an eye for image and motion, and the film is seen as they see it. I have immense amount of respect for both of them, their credentials speak for themselves. But I can’t help but think of the Mozart-Salieri narrative. Lubezki has won for Gravity in 2014 and Birdman in 2015 and would most probably win it again for The Revenant this year. Roger Deakins however, has not only lost out every time they compete but has been nominated 13 times and hasn’t won once. I feel kind of bad for Deakins, but Lubezki…he’s on another plane altogether.

Best Picture nominees were kind of what we expected.

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Brooklyn

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

With the exception of Carol, which I again did not like. And the academy likewise didn’t nominate it. You can read my review here. This alignment of belief is starting to scare me abit, it makes me wonder if I’m morphing into one of those old boring academy voter archetype HAHAHA. Nah on a serious note, I thought carol would be the exact kind of movie that the Academy loved. It’s slow, subtle and harkens the romanticism of the 50’s with a modern perspective. Guess it didn’t work out as well.

I personally felt that Alicia Vikander’s performance in The Danish Girl deserved a Best Actress nomination. I mean come on, she was fantastic! And they put Jennifer Lawrence, who has been nominated countless of times, again in Best Actress? Oh please! Give Alicia a chance! Alicia’s Ex machina role should have been in supporting as well. Alicia Vikander gets the shadow nomination…Oscars screws up again.

The winners are Star Wars, The Revenant and Mad Max.

For fans of these movies, you guys should be celebrating! Star Wars has 5 nominations (mainly technical), Mad Max has 9 spanning mostly all categories except the acting and screenplay ones, The Revenant has 12(TWELVE. HOLY). I can imagine all of you squealing like BB-8 right now. Personally, I’m pretty happy that The Revenant has chalked up its nominations. It totally deserves them. Really happy for Star-Wars too, it was a nice ode to the old franchise while adding new touches and nuances. The rebel characters Rey and Finn really did it for me. They added a nice layer of deviance which resonated with me. And of course, BB-8!! So cute!

And finally I want to dedicate this to all who I thought gave brilliant performances but ultimately did not get nominated for their work.

Idris Elba for Beasts Of No Nation: I’ve said this at the start. And I’ll say it again. TOTALLY ROBBED. He gave a dictator an air of charm and charisma, so warped and depraved and yet so rousing and sympathetic. The very best supporting performance this year. And not even a nomination.

Mya Taylor for Tangerine: Mya Taylor’s Alexandria in Tangerine is the character I felt the most connected to. She was hilarious but also evoked a bittersweet feeling that holds on to you. She being a transgender and the film being in limited release probably made her nomination more difficult. That just proves what Tangerine is trying to say. But kudos to Mya. It was my favourite supporting role of the year 🙂

Steve Carell for The Big Short: The only thing that made The Big Short more entertaining and varied. His offbeat humour extends to scenes where you’d expect some level of graveness or seriousness, but Steve Carell has this, I don’t know how to describe it…this subtle aspect which makes the scene unexpectedly funny. Whether it’s giving the ‘What the f***’ face or the face of indignation or annoyance or disbelief, his wall-street character never ceases to amuse and be amused. But he knows when to get really serious and depressed, and the narative about how his has this inner guilt that stems from his past experiences with his deceased brother makes his characterization complete.

Carey Mulligan for Far From The Madding Crowd: Carey Mulligan is one hell of an actress. And though the movie was not even in the oscar discussion(which it should have been!), her acting deserves a nomination. Yes, it was a strong field. But the independence and vulnerability she portrays as Bathsheba that’s uniquely hers. And uniquely affecting. I would replace Charlotte Rampling with Mulligan.

Cary Joji Fukanaga for Beasts Of No Nation: This director is one talented lad. If you’ve seen the sequences in Beasts Of No Nation, you’ll know what’s intense. Pulsatingly shot and beautifully paced, Fukanga’s directing evokes extremely powerful emotions that definitely make him one of the best director’s this year.

Emily Blunt for Sicario: I’m honestly very shocked that emily Blunt’s not even in the discussion for a nomination. She was riveting in so many ways. Not only has she risen above the machismo of her male counterparts, her display of both feminine strength and innocent weakness humanizes her performance in a movie that is so deathly. From the bloody shower to the car raid to the neck strangle scene, Emily Blunt is second only to Brie Larson in my opinion.

‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for Fast And Furious 7: The best song this year in film. It was such a touching song that really brings a flood of emotions. Fantastic tribute to the late Paul Walker. Real heartless voters.

It should be a very exciting race between the three films Star Wars, The Revenant and Mad Max. Given that they overlap in many technical categories, it’ll be interesting to see whether Star Wars’ vast galaxial saga, Inarritu and Chivo’s brutal and yet ravishing wintery survival revenge-epic or Mad Max’s ridiculous post-apocalyptic waste-land will will impress come oscar Night. And who will win for Best Picture? Spotlight? The Revenant? It’s going to be close. I’ll be rooting for Room for all its categories because that’s just how good I think the film is. I’ll post my oscar predictions in another post pretty soon 🙂

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I think I almost 100% agree with you.
I’m not disappointed they left out Carol.
I’m defintely feeling this was a super white-washed year. Not cool.
And wow – I even agree with your song pick. I loved that one too, very poignant. I admit I like the Lady Gaga one from The Hunting Ground.

So true. It’s white-washed and bleached to the max. I don’t know, sometimes I think the oscars don’t know when to be experimental. They kick out the good ones and replace with worse. I think the acting categories are a prime example. Christian Bale instead of Carell. Jlaw instead of Vikander. I haven’t heard of the Lady Gaga one, I’ll check it out!

I don’t know. I was impressed with Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation as I’m impressed with him in pretty much everything. I struggled with the movie thoughIt felt more like it was ABOUT something important but not really an important film so it made the Idris snub go down a little easier for me.
I was completely won over by Carol. It was one of my two favourite movies this year. It’s strange because normally I’d agree with you about Haynes. His Bob Dylan movie was pretentious and boring.
I agree with you completely about Steve Carell and I think you articulated exactly what works about his performance and what it brought to the movie.

Hmm, I don’t know. I would love to have a discussion with you about Carol. Personally, I didn’t feel it. It had some good scenes though but the pace was too slow and subtle for me. Plus, I didn’t like Haynes style of trying to make us glean some deeper perspective and meaning just by shooting stills of his characters faces. I had a problem with Therese’s character arc as well, I didn’t think she developed from her passive self. But I mean that’s just my perspective.
I thought Beasts was really deep, it kind of showed how an unpainted mind of a child can be violated.

To be honest, I couldn’t wait for Carol to end. I’m pretty sure that’s because I saw it at the opening gala of the Whistler Film Festival on an uncomfortable fold-out chair and was wearing an itchy shirt. I still thought it was jsut beautiful. I tend to like that kind of pacing though.
That is one thing I definitely liked about Beasts of No Nation. I’ve seen child soldiers in movies before but don’t think i’ve ever seen the story told from the child’s perspective.

Fantastic thought many of which we share. I will shout it from the rooftops – IDRIS ELBA WAS INDEED ROBBED! I honestly couldn’t believe it. I thought Carol was an Oscar-made recipe but apparently not. And I totally agree on Del Toro. My other favorite supporting performance of the year!

It’s actually a little about that..as I also just read your review of the Big Short, which does shock me that you pick something like Room over a fantastic, so well done, dark comedy such as that..truly..shocks me! 😀 but it’s a lot that I really don’t agree or like what you say about Idris being snubbed. Here’s the thing..I ‘found’ Idris when he was Stringer Bell on The Wire & have worshipped him ever since. I called him for James Bond about 8 yrs ago..waaaay before it was trendy to do so…but to call racism on him not getting nominated is two things..one..racism is when you intentially don’t include a person of another race, creed, colour etc.. which while the Academy might have it’s issues..but it doesn’t do this intentially..and two.. you completely dis the talent of the people who were nominated and to be sure..there is LOADS of talent in that category and every single person in it deserves to be there. Just because you think Idris should be nominated and he wasn’t, is not reason enough in my book to call out and use racism as the reason why. It would be like me saying to you..well you say the little boy from Room, Jacob Tremblay is so awesome etc..yet, Abraham Attah from Beasts for me, blew him away and isn’t nominated for a SAG like Jacob is..so your racist because you like him over Abraham.. see how silly that sounds??? Do I feel that the Oscars are out of touch on a lot of things..especially the music..yes..I do.. am I going to say it’s their fault for not enough actors of all diversities to not be nominated..no I’m not gonna roll with that. That’s putting down the talented people who are nominated and that to me just kinda sucks to do that also. Do I agree with all of nominations? Nope..but I don’t think putting the racism attachment is the way to go. Let’s maybe look at getting better roles for everyone and getting great performances from them and bitching about it before the film is made vs. after. That’s how I feel. You might not agree..but I think I make my point. 🙂

Well it doesn’t shock me if someone likes The Big Short more than Room. Although I thought Room was emotionally very uplifting and beautiful (and the big short wasn’t exactly my taste), I can appreciate if someone liked it better 🙂 I didn’t say that the oscars were racist simply because it left Idris Elba out. As I pointed out, Idris adds to the growing list of actors of colour who have persistently been left out for years. Yeah I understand what you’re saying about disregarding the talent of the other actors, but in my view, Idris Elba gave the most outstanding supporting performance this year. Omitting his nomination was ridiculous, to me he was much better than Rylance, Bale and Ruffalo. But that aside, the Academy has a worringly disproportionate number of white voters (94%) whose average age is 62, as of 2012. It hasn’t changed much today. My point is that without a more equal representation (for people of colour and women), even the most well-intentioned voters pervade a skewed view and taste for what they consider the best films or best performances of the year. As for Abraham Attah and Jacob Tremblay, I liked both performances equally. So do I feel its racist? It’s not so obvious so I honestly can’t say. Idris Elba did get a nomination. And Beasts Of No Nation did get an Best Ensemble nomination as well. Coupled with all the tv nominations, there’s definitely more diversity 🙂

The only person who was truly robbed in the supporting actor is Michael Shannon – Mark Ruffalo should not be there. Rylance & Bale most def. should be. If I had to nominate a ‘person of colour’ which seems to be what you are saying then my choice would have been Jason Mitchell as Eazy E. If they aren’t giving out BETTER roles in diversity, you can’t just nominate someone because of that. That’s what I’m saying..it starts at the beginning of the process..not at the end. And it’s more obvious to me on the Jacob Tremblay/Abraham Attah thing than anywhere else.

I think you’re missing the point..as someone who worked as an talent agent & manager for many years, you see where it begins..when it’s all they have to deal with because the good roles aren’t being given..you can’t play the ‘blame game’..you can play the ‘out of touch game’ but not the blame one. sorry..

Hey Peggy!! Sorry I took a long time to reply to your latest comment about the ‘out of touch game’ but not the ‘blame game’. I wanted to think about it before I replied. And I can say that I think I finally accept what you’re saying. It’s a top-down problem, and without films with more actors of colour and roles given to such actors, it’s tough when we finally want to nominate them. Haha I was being a little emotional previously for the idris snub 😦 Wise words from you indeed. P.s You’ll be glad to know Attah and Tremblay both made my list for best actor in my best actors of the year post!